The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-08-31
SCHOOLS.
The Four Thieves.
BY DELLA w. LYMAN.

| The school-room at Emory Hall was
so still you could have heard o pin.
drop. Thirty girls sat motionless,
CONSERVATION and horror written on
their faces. They had just heard Miss
Emory say:
"The missing gold locket has at last
been found, and the thief discovered.
In justice to the rest, her name cannot
be withheld. It isl
And here every girl felt her heart
leap to her throat, in the dreadful
pause one of their own circle should
be forever branded with the name Of
thief.
"Her name," continued Miss Emo
ry, "is-Mary Martinr' 80
|. For the rest of their lives, those
girls could never efface the impression
of that scene, and the horror created
in their minds by the discovery that
one of their own number was q thief.
None felt it more than three of the
Older girls, who were called ''the trio"
because they were constantly togeth-
er; none were so indignant and shock
ed as they, and none expressed more
horror at the awfulness of such a
crime as stealing.
One fine Saturday morning, the
whole school was delayed O haIf-bour,
in starting on an excursion, by the tar
diness of Beth Brown, the youngest of
the trio. -.
Beth is always late" said one of
the girls, while they were waiting.
II never mean to make an appoint
ment with her again. The other day
we We're out driving, and she stopped
to make a call, promising she would
only stay ten minutes, and instead of
that, she made me wait nearly three
quarters of an hour; and I missed my
music lesson with Herr Siegel, which
Is so expensive 1 can't afford to lose
it,"
EYES," said another, "she made our
Class Day Committee waste nearly an
hour yesterday by her tardiness, and :
in examination time too; it was just
taking so much from our stand"
Emily Maynard was the second of
the trio who so loudly denounced
Mary Martin.
One day at recess she was one of O
group of girls lolling and talking un.
der fine elm in the garden. ~
"What a splendid Greek scholar 3
Meta Winslow isl" said one.
Eyes," said Emily; "but do you
know, girls, was up in her room the
other day, and I'm sure saw, under
pile of books on her table, a "pony" to
Homeru'
The bell rang just then, and they
went in. Kate Pentield, one of the
girls who heard Emily's remark about
the pony, told it 10 her roommate,
Belle Upton, who, that evening, wrote
the following in her letter home:
II am sorry to say that think we
had better give up the idea of engag-
ing Meta Winslow as the children's
governess next year, for though she
is poor, and needs the situation, I
know you will rot want the children.
to be in the care of one whose reputa-
ton for honesty has been questioned.
I have learned to-day that she uses
pony in getting out her Greek" -
And so through Emily's careless
speech poor Meta lost the situation
which she so much needed; for the
so-called "pony" which Icy on her ta-
ble was but collection of essays by
Matthew Arnold on "Translations Of
Homer"
Charlotte Stone was the third of the
three girls who expressed such horror
at Mary Martins crime.
When Commencement Day at Emo
ry Hall at last arrived, among the
essay-readers none was prettier than
Charlotte. AS she stood on the ivy
trimmed platform in her dainty and
becoming white dress, and read one Of
the best essays of the morning, admi-
ration was plainly written on the faces
of the large audience before her, and,
as she concluded, the loudest applause
of the day greeted her gratified ears.
At the reception in the evening,
Charlotte was the centre of attraction,
and many were the compliments
which she received OH her essay. at
was one of the most original produc-
tions 7 ever heard from one so young"
remarked venerable professor. Char
lotte looked pretter than ever as she
smilingly thanked him, and turned to
receive similar praise from the next
conner.
Who would have suspected that on
! the highest shelf in the large Emory
Hall Library, in Case A, lay book,
the third from the left, which contain
ed all article beginning at page POI,
from which every idea in Charlotte
Stones original ~ essay had been
carefully cuIled, and, with slight vari-
ations in the wording, bodily trans
planted?
And yet she herself would hardly
have been shocked at this barefaced
description of her production; for
from her childhood she had little by
little acquired habit of appropriat-
ing as her own, both in conversation
and writing, the thoughts OF others,
50 that by degrees her moral sense that
any deceit was involved in it, was al
most entirely gone.
But neither she nor Beth nor Emily
would ever have dreamed of stealing a
gold locket, nor did they at all consid.
er that time, reputation, and original
thoughts are often more valuable than
dozen lockets, and least Of all would
they have understood the strange and
blunt title of this story.